Sofi Oksanen – författare

Deep in an Estonian forest, two women, one young, one old, are hiding.Zara is a prostitute and a murderer, on the run from brutal captors - men who know how to punish a woman. Aliide offers refuge but not safety: she has her own criminal secrets - traitorous crimes of passion and revenge committed long ago, during the country's brutal Soviet years.Both women have survived lives of abuse. But this time their survival depends on revealing the one thing history has taught them to keep safely hidden: the truth.A haunting, intimate and gripping story of suspicion, betrayal and retribution against a backdrop of Soviet oppression and European war.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 MINNA CANTH AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 MOORE PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WRITING Blending the call to action of We Should All Be Feminists with the journalistic rigor of Masha Gessen, “an exquisite feminist critique of Russia’s oppressive tactics" (Kirkus Reviews) revealing how modern Russia’s history of weaponizing sexual violence plays a crucial role in its current geopolitical strategy “It’s one of those books that can truly change a reader's life. . . . A powerful, unforgettable read.” —Andrey Kurkov, award-winning author of Grey Bees and The Silver Bone“Thoughtful, instructive and deeply harrowing.” —Luke Harding, The GuardianOn March 22, 2023, the Swedish Academy organized a conference on threats to democracy and freedom of expression featuring a slate of distinguished speakers including Arundhati Roy, Timothy Snyder, and Sofi Oksanen. Oksanen’s address—entitled “Putin's War on Women”— would go on to spark such interest that the acclaimed Finnish writer felt compelled to return to it as the basis for a larger, more in-depth look at Putin’s threat to women. The result is Same River, Twice, a devastating book-length essay on Russian imperialism that incisively builds on the themes and arguments first presented in her powerful speech.During the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Oksanen's great-aunt was arrested and brutally interrogated overnight. Left permanently traumatized by the experience, she would never speak again. Using her family story as a starting point, Oksanen launches an investigation into the systematic war crimes that the Russian government has, for nearly a century, committed with impunity. From the Russian military's entry into Berlin in 1945 to its modern invasion of Ukraine, Russia has continually employed violence against women when combatting its enemies. Life for women in Putin's Russia is little better; gender equality is in decline, women are silenced by the legal system, and rape is used to humiliate victims, especially women in media.Through Oksanen's sober analysis a disturbing picture emerges: under Putin, state-sanctioned misogyny has become foundational to the state’s power. It underpins the current regime, serves as a means of weaving international alliances, and forms an essential part of Russia’s ongoing genocide in Ukraine, in turn posing a threat to the rights of women and minorities worldwide. As threats to democracy grow stronger across the globe, the powerful and timely Same River, Twice is a warning about Russia's war on women that cannot not be ignored.Translated from the Finnish by Owen F. WitesmanThis unflinching investigation reveals how Russia’s weaponized misogyny is a global threat: A Century of Impunity: An urgent work of human rights writing that connects the story of Oksanen's great-aunt during the Soviet occupation to the systematic violence seen in Ukraine today, exposing a long history of unpunished atrocities.Weaponized Sexual Violence: Details how Russia has systematically used rape as an instrument of conquest and genocide from its entry into Berlin in 1945 to the modern invasion of Ukraine.Misogyny as State Power: An incisive feminist critique that shows how Putin's regime uses “traditional values” to silence women, decline gender equality, and forge alliances with other authoritarian powers.A Global Threat to Democracy: A timely warning that reveals how Russia’s domestic oppression of women is not just a local issue, but a core part of its geopolitical strategy to weaken democracies worldwide.

1941: In Communist-ruled, war-ravaged Estonia, two men are fleeing from the Red Army - Roland, a fiercely principled freedom fighter, and his slippery cousin Edgar. When the Germans arrive, Roland goes into hiding; Edgar abandons his unhappy wife, Juudit, and takes on a new identity as a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime... 1963: Estonia is again under Communist control, independence even further out of reach behind the Iron Curtain. Edgar is now a Soviet apparatchik, desperate to hide the secrets of his past life and stay close to those in power. But his fate remains entangled with Roland's, and with Juudit, who may hold the key to uncovering the truth... In a masterfully told story that moves between the tumult of these two brutally repressive eras - a story of surveillance, deception, passion, and betrayal - Sofi Oksanen brings to life both the frailty, and the resilience, of humanity under the shadow of tyranny.

1941: In Communist-ruled, war-ravaged Estonia, two men are fleeing from the Red Army - Roland, a fiercely principled freedom fighter, and his slippery cousin Edgar. When the Germans arrive, Roland goes into hiding; Edgar abandons his unhappy wife, Juudit, and takes on a new identity as a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime... 1963: Estonia is again under Communist control, independence even further out of reach behind the Iron Curtain. Edgar is now a Soviet apparatchik, desperate to hide the secrets of his past life and stay close to those in power. But his fate remains entangled with Roland's, and with Juudit, who may hold the key to uncovering the truth... In a masterfully told story that moves between the tumult of these two brutally repressive eras - a story of surveillance, deception, passion, and betrayal - Sofi Oksanen brings to life both the frailty, and the resilience, of humanity under the shadow of tyranny.

The hair-raising mash-up of feminist X-Men, gothic fairy tale, family saga and biting social criticism that is taking Europe by storm.When Anita Naakka jumps in front of an oncoming train, her daughter, Norma, is left alone with the secret they have spent their lives hiding: Norma has supernatural hair, sensitive to the slightest changes in her mood--and the moods of those around her--moving of its own accord, corkscrewing when danger is near. And so it is her hair that alerts her, while she talks with a strange man at her mother's funeral, that her mother may not have taken her own life. Setting out to reconstruct Anita's final months--sifting through puzzling cell phone records, bank statements, video files--Norma begins to realise that her mother knew more about her hair's powers than she let on: a sinister truth beyond Norma's imagining.

'An ambiguous horror story about egg donorship and the black market, it keeps the reader equally balanced between frustration and fascination. ' Daily Mail'An intricate, textured slow-burner that paints a vivid picture of a post-Soviet state where gangsters rule and the exploitation of the female body is big business' GuardianHelsinki, 2016. Olenka sits on a bench, watching a family play in a dog park. A stranger sits down beside her. Olenka startles; she would recognize this other woman anywhere. After all, Olenka was the one who ruined her life. And this woman may be about to do the same to Olenka. Yet, for a fragile moment, here they are, together - looking at their own children being raised by other people.Moving seamlessly between modern-day Finland and Ukraine in the early days of its post-Soviet independence, Dog Park is a keenly observed, dark and propulsive novel set at the intersection of East and West, centered in a web of exploitation and the commodification of the female body. Oksanen brings fearless psychological acuity to this captivating story about a woman unable to escape the memory of her lost child, the ruthless powers that still hunt her, and the lies that could well end up saving her.